In its affable, half-kidding way, ‘Burglar’ is a reasonably watchable
murder mystery, good-natured and bloodless as an episode of ‘The
Rockford Files.’ In fact, in several respects, the film bears more
resemblance to a segment of a light-hearted weekly crime show than it
does a stand-alone film. It seems to be crafted with an expectation
that we will quickly familiarize ourselves with -- and like -- Bernice
"Bernie" Rhodenburr (Whoopi Goldberg), enjoying her company so much
that we won’t mind the fact that her adventures are fairly
run-of-the-mill for the genre.

Bernie is an ex-con who runs a used bookshop but occasionally plies her
old trade of cat burglary. Although a thief, Bernie has her ethics --
her motto is, "It’s not what you steal but who you steal it from."
Although Bernie wants to go straight, she is being blackmailed and
urgently needs funds. A simple-looking gig opens up, but Bernie winds
up hiding in the closet just as her burglary target is stabbed to death
in the room beyond. This puts Bernie in the position of needing to find
the killer before the cops pin the killing on her.

The opening sequence, in which Bernie successfully plays upon the
unconscious racism of the residents of an upscale enclave in order to
make a clean getaway, creates a knowing, satirical tone the film
doesn’t maintain for long. Then again, in the source material for
‘Burglar,’ a series of books by Lawrence Block, the title character is
a white man. The screenplay by Joseph Loeb III & Matthew Weisman
and Hugh Wilson has a decent whodunit plot that nevertheless doesn’t
present suspects intriguing and/or dangerous enough for us to
especially care how the mystery is resolved.

Goldberg, playing a smart, observant woman, projects intelligent humor
and provides good company. Director Hugh Wilson keeps the pace bouncy
but can’t get a unified style from the cast. Goldberg, G.W. Bailey as a
crooked cop who’s leaning on Bernie and John Goodman and Anne De Salvo
as detectives on her tail all appear to be in the same movie, but
Lesley Ann Warren as another suspect seems to be in some other, broader
film altogether. Bob Goldthwait, as Bernie’s dog-grooming best friend,
seems to have one foot in an entirely separate dimension. When the
clashing acting methods turn up in the same scene, it’s hard to suspend
disbelief.

Wilson stages a variety of foot and vehicular chases competently,
though he rarely produces thrills or even out-loud laughs. In Chapter
24, he creates some surprisingly effective film noir imagery in thick
blue fog. Elsewhere, the film has an ever-so-slightly yellow tint,
which is most visible in reds that consistently skew towards an orange
tint. Sonically, the single most interesting moment arguably comes in
Chapter 11, with a scream of surprise that has an electrical component
to it; it’s hard for this listener to tell if this is intentional or a
strange byproduct of the mix, but it’s undeniably unusual.

‘Burglar’ is undemanding, pleasant viewing. There’s not much to bother
most people and it doesn’t lose the viewer’s attention while it’s on,
but once over, it’s almost immediately forgettable.